1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to authentication methods for computing devices. More particularly, the invention relates to biometric authentication for computing devices over a communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Networks of computing devices, wherein each computing device has Windows® 7 as an operating system, may utilize the Windows Biometric Framework (WBF) to implement a biometric authentication system on each computing device. In operation of the biometric authentication system on a given computing device, a user may provide a live sample via a biometric sensor, such as swiping his finger on a fingerprint scanner. The live sample may be used to generate a biometric template that is compared to a biometric template associated with the user and already stored on the computing device. If the templates match, then the user is authenticated and is allowed access to secure resources on the computing device or other devices on the network. However, with Windows® 7 that utilizes the WBF, the biometric authentication system on each computing device is functional only on that device, such that a user enrolled to access secure resources through a first computing device may not access the resources through a second device without re-enrolling on the second device. Likewise for all other computing devices on the network.